1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a TV program and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for capturing an object in a TV program.
2. Discussion of Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a typical construction of a television (TV) including a remote control 1 which allows a wireless control of the TV by a user; a remote receiver 2 which receives and outputs a signal from the remote control 1; a tuner 3 which tunes a signal received through an antenna; a demultiplexer 4 which separates the tuned signal into an audio/video signal and additional information data; an audio/video decoder 5 which decodes the audio/video signal from the demultiplexer 4; a display unit 6 which displays the decoded signal; a storage 7 which stores the additional information data; a controller 8 which controls the demultiplexer 4 in response to the signal from the remote receiver 2 and extracting the additional information data stored in the storage 7 to output a corresponding control signal; and a memory 9 which temporarily stores the data extracted from the storage 7.
To view a TV program by the television of FIG. 1, the user selects a program from broadcasting stations or external program providers by using the remote control 1. The remote receiver 2 receives a signal indicating a selected program from the remote control 1 and outputs a corresponding signal to the controller 8. Thus, the controller 8 outputs a control signal to tune the program selected by the user in response to the signal from the remote receiver 2. Also in response to the signal from the remote receiver 2, the controller 8 outputs a control signal to separate the program of a broadcasting station or an external program provider selected by the user.
The tuner 3 receives signals through an antenna and tunes a signal of the broadcasting station or the external program provider with the program selected by the user in response to the control signal from the controller 8. The tuned signal is output to the demultiplexer 4, through which the program selected by the user separated into audio/video signal and the additional information data, in response to the control from the controller 8. The additional information data includes an electronic program guide (EPG) data or information regarding objects such as a particular actor or actress in a TV program being displayed.
The audio/video decoder 5 receives and decodes the audio/video signal from the demultiplexer 4 and outputs a decoded signal. Accordingly, the display unit 6 displays the program selected by the user in response to the signal output from the audio/video decoder 5. The additional information data is received and stored in the storage 7 in response to the control signal of the controller 8. The controller 8 extracts the additional information data corresponding to a program being displayed on the display unit 6 from the storage 7 and stores the extracted information in the memory 9. Thereafter, the additional information data for the program being displayed is read from the memory 9 and signal processed to be displayed. Finally, a prescribed message is displayed through the display unit 9 to inform that there is additional information for the program currently being displayed.
The TV as described above can process, reproduce TV programs and display additional information about objects in the TV program on the TV screen. However, a user may wish to select an object from an image frame currently being displayed, and display or print the additional information regarding selected object. Because the TV in the related art does not have such function or capability, a limited service is provided to users.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve at least the problems and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for capturing an object in a TV program being displayed and displaying the captured object on other displaying equipment.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for capturing an object in a TV program being displayed and printing the captured object
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus for capturing an object in a TV program includes a Media Object Description Table (MODT) decoder for decoding additional information data from a demultiplexer into a plurality of MODT data; an object data memory for storing the plurality of MODT data; a controller for controlling the demultiplexer in response to a signal from a remote receiver, extracting the MODT data stored in the object data memory and outputting a corresponding control signal to display various additional information; and an output device for converting the extracted MODT data corresponding to a captured object into a data file of a specific format according to a control of the controller. The MODT data corresponds to an object captured among image frames currently being displayed on a display unit.
A method for capturing an object in a TV program in accordance with the present invention comprises capturing an object desired by a user from an image frame being displayed; extracting the data corresponding to the captured object; signal processing and outputting the extracted data; and converting the signal processed data into a data file of a specific format, and displaying or printing the file. The displaying or printing step may further comprise moving, and enlarging or reducing the data after converting the data into a file of a specific format.